Would anyone have any information on the life and work of Ernest Silvertooth? In The New Paradigm, John O'M Bockris cites him as conducting an experiment in 1987 the results of which suggest that the speed of light is variable and that under certain circumstances matter can reach superluminal velocities. However, I have not been able to find out anything more about Silvertooth or his experiment on the Internet.

Sun Oct 28, 2007 3:23 pm

bloom

Interested

Joined: Sun May 27, 2007 6:07 pmPosts: 45

Re: Ernest Silvertooth

[quote="RAmesbury"]Would anyone have any information on the life and work of Ernest Silvertooth? In [i]The New Paradigm[/i], John O'M Bockris cites him as conducting an experiment in 1987 the results of which suggest that the speed of light is variable and that under certain circumstances matter can reach superluminal velocities. However, I have not been able to find out anything more about Silvertooth or his experiment on the Internet.[size=18][/size][/quote]

Would anyone have any information on the life and work of Ernest Silvertooth? In The New Paradigm, John O'M Bockris cites him as conducting an experiment in 1987 the results of which suggest that the speed of light is variable and that under certain circumstances matter can reach superluminal velocities. However, I have not been able to find out anything more about Silvertooth or his experiment on the Internet.

In a 1986 letter to Nature[42] Ernest W. Silvertooth reported that he constructed an interferometer capable of detecting the absolute motion of the Earth with respect to the ether. In Experimental detection of the ether[43] and Motion through the Ether[44], Silvertooth reported that on the particular day of his measurements, the Earth moved at 378 km/s towards the constellation Leo. If relativity is correct, than this result should be complete garbage.

Silvertooth published his findings before NASA launched COBE, the first satellite to accurately measure the cosmic microwave background (CMB). Due to Doppler shift, there is a slight anisotropy in the spectrum of the CMB. Based on precise measurements of this anisotropy, it was determined that, relative to the CMB, the heliocentric frame moves at 390 km/s towards Leo. Given the earth's orbital speed of 30 km/s, this is a very good agreement with Silvertooth's measurement. In a refined experiment[45], Silvertooth and Whitney confirmed the earlier result and found a speed of v = 378 km/s.

A citation search through ISI Web of Science[47] reveals no references to any of Silvertooth's papers in the mainstream scientific literature. An online document[46] briefly mentions and dismisses it on the grounds that both the experiment and the theoretical analysis are flawed, but given how well Silvertooth's result agrees with the independently determined motion of the Earth through the CMB, error seems to be an insufficient explanation. Unless Silvertooth committed outright fraud by simply making a lucky guess as to the Earth's velocity relative to the CMB and then ascribing this guess to an imaginary experiment, the inescapable conclusion would be that translation can be measured by purely electromagnetic means and that Einstein's theory of special relativity is falsified.

Pls refute them. I need to get to the bottom of this all whether
relativity (special and general) truly represents reality.

The following are the text summarizing the findings of the above
folks.

"For example, Ernest Silvertooth succeeded in measuring the
one-way wavelength of light and found that, contrary to the
predictions of special relativity, photon wavelength (and
velocity) varies with direction, an effect he attributed to the
Earth's motion relative to an absolute ether frame of space. To
carry out this measurement he assembled a special kind of laser
interferometer apparatus which used an array of adjustable
mirrors and beam splitters to cause two oppositely directed laser
beams to interfer e and produce a standing wave pattern of
regularly spaced bright and fringes. He was then able to
determine the spacing of these fringes, using a specially built
television camera tube with a transparent light-sensing surface.
Since the effective thickness of his detector's light-sensing
surface was less than 10 percent of the laser light wavelength,
he could very accurately determine the positions of consecutive
bright fringes. He found that the fringes achieved their closest
spacing of a pproximately one- fourth of a millimeter
(one-hundredth of an inch) when the opposed laser beams were
pointing along a direction aligned with the constellation of Leo.
When the path of the opposed laser beams was rotated away from
that heading, the fringes spread apart to greater distances. He
concluded that this unique direction in which the fringe pattern
attained a minimum spacing marked the direction of the Earth's
motion through the ether, leading him to conclude that the solar
system is m oving with respect to this absol ute frame with a
velocity of 378 ñ 19 km/s in a direction of Leo. This is
consistent with astronomical measurements of the magnitude and
direct on of the dipole anisotropy in the 3 K microwave
background radiation. Such measurements indicate that the solar
System is moving at a similar velocity of 365 ñ 18 km/s toward
the southern part of Leo (RA = 11.2 +- 0.2 hr, s = -7 ñ 2
degree).

Other physicists, such as the French physicist Georges Sagnac and
the American scientist Herbert Ives, have also come up with
convincing evidence supporting the existence of an ether. Sagnac
performed his famous experiment in 1913, shortly after Einstein
proposed his theory of relativity. Sagnac had mounted a light
source on a turntable, divided its beam using a half-silvered
mirror, and reflected the two beams in opposite directions around
the perimeter of the turntable where they were recombined to
produc e a light interference pattern. He found that clockwise
rotation of the turntable produced a counterclockwise ether wind
which caused the fringes of the interference pattern to shift by
an amount proportional to the turntable's speed, v. The
counterclockwise traveling light beam (C + Vether wind) was found
to complete its circuit in less time than the clockwise traveling
beam (C - V ether wind), indicating that the speed of light is
constant relative to the nonrotating ether frame. Relativity's
predi ction t hat the speed would be constant in the rotating
frame of the light source was not supported.

The Sagnac effect is also observed on a much larger scale in the
synchronization of clock signals transmitted by the global
positioning system (GPS). The satellites transmitting these
signals are in geostationary orbit and hence rotate in synchrony
with the Earth. It has been found that their signals can be
properly synchronized only by taking account of the fact that
radio signals sent east-to-west against this rotation will travel
faster In the network frame than signals sent in the opposite
direction, in direct violation of special relativity.

The existence of an ether can also be tested by the Trouton-Noble
experiment wherein a charged parallel plate capacitor is
suspended from a fine fiber. If there were a preferred ether rest
frame, the capacitor would be expected to develop a torque due to
magnetic forces arising from its movement relative to the ether.
The capacitor would be expected to twist so that the direction of
its electric field became aligned parallel to its movement
through the ether. In the original experiment, which Trouton and
No ble performed in 1903, yielded a null effect, it has been
argued, because the torque was too weak to observe. However, more
recently physicist Patrick Comille has performed a modified
version of this experiment in which a 500 pF capacitor made of
aluminum foil and Plexiglas was observed to spontaneously align
in the East-West direction when charged to 70,000 Volts. He
observed that the effect appeared when the applied voltage
exceeded 30 kV provided that a leakage current of about 70 uA was
present.

Experiments performed by both Pappas and Graneau indicate that
the Biot-Savart/Grassman force law and its covariant relativistic
version, the Lorentz force law, are not universally valid and
instead should be replaced by the more generally correct,
nonrelativistic cardinal force law of Ampere. The latter requires
that electrodynamic interactions take place relative to a
preferred absolute reference frame, e.g., an ether rest frame.

Another assumption of special relativity that has recently became
challenged is the notion that nothing can travel faster than the
speed of light, c = 3 x 10 ^ 10 cm/s. For example, in 1991, Ishii
and Giakos reported that they had transmitted microwaves at
faster than light speeds. Shortly afterward in 1992, Enders and
Nimtz, physicists at the University of Cologne in Germany,
described transmitting microwaves through an undersized waveguide
at superluminal velocity. This work became more widely known
after 1995 when this group succeeded in transmitting Mozart's
40th symphony through a narrow 11 centimeter long waveguide at a
speed 4.7 times faster than that of light.

There is also evidence that field potentials propagate much
faster than the speed of light. For example, Sherwin and
Rawcliffe performed an experiment which demonstrated that closely
spaced charged particles respond to each other's "instantaneous"
positions when accelerated. The experiment did not support the
conventional notion that their fields communicate at the speed of
light and that they should respond to the positions they each had
in the light-speed-time-delay past. Citing this as well as other
evid ence, Van Flandem and Vigier argue that gravity, Coulomb
fields, and electrodynamic interactions propagate superluminally.

The evidence against relativity is now so overwhelming that we
must acknowledge that we have entered a new era in which the
assumptions of special relativity must be considered invalid and
serious consideration be given again to the ether concept. This
does not mean that we must abandon the Lorentz relativistic
transformations. It does, however, require that we change the way
we interpret the meaning of their space and time coordinates.
This change will certainly be a difficult issue for many "old
schoo" relativists to adopt. However, if experiment shows that
the concept of relative space-time reference frames is no longer
valid, then there seems to be no alternative but to abandon the
idea."

Well, I cannot refute all of them; I do not know enough about the specific circumstances to do so. But I do believe that two of them I can refute, or at least call into question...

Der Chemiker wrote:

Other physicists, such as the French physicist Georges Sagnac and the American scientist Herbert Ives, have also come up with convincing evidence supporting the existence of an ether. Sagnac performed his famous experiment in 1913, shortly after Einstein proposed his theory of relativity. Sagnac had mounted a light source on a turntable, divided its beam using a half-silvered mirror, and reflected the two beams in opposite directions around the perimeter of the turntable where they were recombined to produc e a light interference pattern. He found that clockwise rotation of the turntable produced a counterclockwise ether wind which caused the fringes of the interference pattern to shift by an amount proportional to the turntable's speed, v.

Rotation is a form of acceleration; that makes it very tricky to work with, and results in some counter-intuitive results.

Also, the acceleration is proportional to the speed of rotation, v.

The relativistic explanation of this experiment, therefore, deals with the effect of the acceleration... there was a whole thread on Sagnac on these boards previously.

Der Chemiker wrote:

The existence of an ether can also be tested by the Trouton-Noble experiment wherein a charged parallel plate capacitor is suspended from a fine fiber. If there were a preferred ether rest frame, the capacitor would be expected to develop a torque due to magnetic forces arising from its movement relative to the ether. The capacitor would be expected to twist so that the direction of its electric field became aligned parallel to its movement through the ether. In the original experiment, which Trouton and No ble performed in 1903, yielded a null effect, it has been argued, because the torque was too weak to observe. However, more recently physicist Patrick Comille has performed a modified version of this experiment in which a 500 pF capacitor made of aluminum foil and Plexiglas was observed to spontaneously align in the East-West direction when charged to 70,000 Volts. He observed that the effect appeared when the applied voltage exceeded 30 kV provided that a leakage current of about 70 uA was present.

What steps were taken to ensure that this was not merely a measurement of the shape of the Earth's magnetic field?

der Chemiker: Silvertooth published his findings before NASA launched COBE, the first satellite to accurately measure the cosmic microwave background (CMB). Due to Doppler shift, there is a slight anisotropy in the spectrum of the CMB. Based on precise measurements of this anisotropy, it was determined that, relative to the CMB, the heliocentric frame moves at 390 km/s towards Leo. Given the earth's orbital speed of 30 km/s, this is a very good agreement with Silvertooth's measurement. In a refined experiment[45], Silvertooth and Whitney confirmed the earlier result and found a speed of v = 378 km/s.

cinci: I don't think so. I read Smoot's book and he corrected the data for the velocity which he knew beforehand. I don't know how long they have had this value, but it didn't originate with COBE.

Tue Oct 30, 2007 7:17 am

cincirob

Consumed by Physics

Joined: Thu Oct 05, 2006 11:00 pmPosts: 10836

der Chemike: The following people performed experiments that allegedly
disproved Special Relativity:

cinci: There are dozens of experiments that verfy the predictions of SR. How about you proving they're all wrong first.

And anybody that thinks Sagnac violates special relativity is just blowing smoke. Special relativity deals with inertial frames which are not subject to rotation BY DEFINITION. To say that an experiment that deals with rotatin disproves SR makes absolutely no sense.

You comment: Other physicists, such as the French physicist Georges Sagnac and the American scientist Herbert Ives, have also come up with convincing evidence supporting the existence of an ether. Sagnac performed his famous experiment in 1913, shortly after Einstein proposed his theory of relativity. Sagnac had mounted a light source on a turntable, divided its beam using a half-silvered mirror, and reflected the two beams in opposite directions around the perimeter of the turntable where they were recombined to produc e a light interference pattern. He found that clockwise rotation of the turntable produced a counterclockwise ether wind which caused the fringes of the interference pattern to shift by an amount proportional to the turntable's speed, v.

Draw yourself a little diagram of this device and then draw a slightly rotated copy on top of it. Notice, that the mirrors move while the device rotates so that the path is a little longer or shorter depending on which way the beam is travelling. Why wouldn't that produce interference? It certainly doesn't require an ether wind, it only requires geometry. You're just parroting what somebody else wrote somewhere. You can't have taken a real look at it yourself.

Tue Oct 30, 2007 7:24 am

Der Chemiker

Board Warrior

Joined: Thu Oct 04, 2007 4:07 pmPosts: 376

Quote:

What steps were taken to ensure that this was not merely a measurement of the shape of the Earth's magnetic field?

A charged capacitor in a uniform magnetic field will not experience a force from the magnetic field. Charges have to be in motion relative to the magnetic field or the magnetic field has to be changing to generate a force on the charges. This is from classical physics. Also, Einstein mentions this on the first page of his 1905 paper on relativity.

Tue Oct 30, 2007 1:02 pm

Der Chemiker

Board Warrior

Joined: Thu Oct 04, 2007 4:07 pmPosts: 376

According to NASA's website the COBE satellite was launched on November 18, 1989

Quote:

NASA's COBE (Cosmic Bakground Explorer) satellite was developed to measure the diffuxe infrared and cosmic microwave background radiation from the early Universe to the limits set by our astrophysical environment. COBE was launched on November 18, 1989 and carried three instruments: DIRBE (the Diffuse InfraRed Experiment) to search for and measure the cosmic infrared background radiation, DMR (Differential Microwave Radiometers) to map the cosmic microwave background radiation precisely, and FIRAS (Far-InfaRed Absolute Spectrophotometer) to compare the spectrum of the cosmic microwave background radiation with that from a precise blackbody.

"the anisotropy was first detected by the Differential Microwave Radiometer instrument on the COBE satellite."

----------------------------------------------

Quote:

Another set of instruments on the COBE satellite were designed to look for these irregularities in the CMB; they were called the Differential Microwave Radiometers. If there were to be irregularities in the CMB, they could be seen as tiny hot and cold variations on the sky. In 1992, the COBE research team announced that it had evidence that these hot and cold spots did exist, and they released the map below.

The temperature fluctuations are extremely small, their amplitude has an rms value of 1 part in 100,000 on angular scales of 10 degrees on the sky. Only within the last few years has receiver technology progressed to the point that such tiny variations were even detectable. Since COBE, a number of other groups have also reported detecting anisotropies in the CMB at various angular scales.

cinci: I don't think so. I read Smoot's book and he corrected the data for the velocity which he knew beforehand. I don't know how long they have had this value, but it didn't originate with COBE.

me: Give me the name of Smoot's book and I'll see if its in there.

Tue Oct 30, 2007 7:17 pm

CCC

Site Admin

Joined: Sat Jul 16, 2005 3:58 amPosts: 4328

Der Chemiker wrote:

Quote:

What steps were taken to ensure that this was not merely a measurement of the shape of the Earth's magnetic field?

A charged capacitor in a uniform magnetic field will not experience a force from the magnetic field. Charges have to be in motion relative to the magnetic field or the magnetic field has to be changing to generate a force on the charges. This is from classical physics. Also, Einstein mentions this on the first page of his 1905 paper on relativity.

Assuming that: (1) The capacitor is stationary with respect to the Earth's surface and (2) the Earth's magnetic field is stationary with respect to the Earth's (theorised) iron inner core, then the capacitor is only at rest relative to the Earth's magnetic field if the Earth's inner core rotates at the same speed as the Earth's surface. Considering that the two are seperated by a thick layer of molten (and therefore liquid) rock, I'd hesitate to say that the capacitor was necessarily stationary with respect to the Earth's magnetic field. (It would need to be extremely close to stationary, but the measured effect is pretty small anyhow, is it not?)

Moreover, a slight difference in rotation speed but not direction could be expected to exert a force in the east-west direction, independantly of the time of day and year, as has been noticed; an aether effect, could be expected to produce a force in the direction of some constellation, and therefore different at different times of day and year.

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